Search the SHHS library catalog here! (If prompted, type "lyman library" in the library name field; there is no password.) If you need help finding a book, just ask Ms. Pronovost.
To locate primary sources more quickly, try using these words in a keyword search: speech, bill, law, diaries, treaty, autobiography, account, narrative, letters, correspondence
Put an asterisk in your keyword to retrieve both singular and plural forms of the word. For example: diar* to get both "diary" and "diaries," speech* to get both "speech" and "speeches."
A book doesn't need to be read cover-to-cover to be useful for research! Two parts of books will help you find specific information: the table of contents (at the beginning), which lists the titles of chapters, and the index (at the end), which is a guide to every topic covered in the book and where to find it.
Non-fiction is sorted by the Dewey Decimal Classification system. Two areas in particular will be useful if you're browsing the stacks: 300 for social sciences, and 900 for history.